2020, Vol.21, No.3

The Journal of Translation Studies 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.49

pISSN : 1229-795X
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kats

This study delves translators’ acceptance of neural network machine translation (NMT) such as Google Translate and Papago. Translators have long served as communicators, bridging various cultures and societies. At a time when translators feel threatened by the emergence of NMT and when its utilization receiving conflicting opinions, this study uses in-depth interviews to explore translators’ attitude toward NMT and how such attitudes are formed. Through this study, it was found that translators recognized NMT, which was thought to threaten the position of translators, as a kind of tool. Translators think that while some language combinations and some text types allow for reliable quality of NMT, NMT's translation quality is not yet reliable when it comes to the sphere of professional translation, mainly performed by the interviewess. However, it was found that if peer translators recommend using NMT or if social awareness of NMT is improved, translators are also likely to accept NMT. Moreover, with the advent of NMT, translators predicted that the translation market would be polarized and divided into the general and the professional markets. Translators believe that post-editing is not a job fit for experts, but rather a tool that can be utilized by the general public and expect translation to evolve in a way that is better suits the needs of the professional translation market and not the general.

The 4th Industrial Revolution driven by artificial intelligence(AI) brings fundamental changes in the way we live, work and even play. So does it in the way we translate. The MT industry is advertising amazing technological advances and the MTPE market is ready to grow in full swing by recruiting and educating post-editors. Several overseas studies showed that professional translators, the best candidates for post-editing, however, tend to avoid PE work. Can't professional translators actively participate in the MTPE field and lead the changes of the translation area? This study is aimed at finding out how domestic professional translators think about MTPE through in-depth interviews and at looking for some possible ways that can help professional translators actively participate in the MTPE arena. Based on Bourdieu's concept of habitus, this study analyzes why translators are reluctant to embrace the MTPE field and presents some feasible ways that can be introduced at graduate schools of interpretation and translations and their affiliated research institutions.

The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of traditional translation education on the quality of MTPE results. To this end, the study analyzed the MTPE results of three translators with different levels of translation education. The texts for analysis were selected from the National Information Society Agency's AI data creation project, which built a parallel corpus for Korean-English machine translation. Post-editing guidelines used in the project were used as basis for analysis on which the number and severity of errors generated were analyzed. According to the analysis, translator A, who graduated from a graduate program in interpretation and translation, showed the most errors. Translator C, who does not have any translation background, and translator B, who finished a master’s program in translation, followed in order. Translator A's style of work seems to have affected this result, which showed a rapid pace of work but missed many errors in machine translation. Serious errors appeared in the order of translator C, translator A, and translator B. In the meantime, by subject, there was a difference in the quality of the results of all post-editors. These results mean that translation education can have some effect on MTPE quality. Based on the analysis results, the subject-specific translation practice highlighted in the existing translation training can help to improve the quality differences that arise according to topic. In addition, the addition of editing competencies and CAT tool exercises to MTPE training will contribute to improving MTPE quality and improving the expertise of translators. The study has a limit to the fact that the quality difference was not clearly identified because individual factors affecting post-editing quality, such as the working style of translators and subject areas familiar to each translator, were not sufficiently excluded. However, it is urgent to establish the direction of translation education in order to respond to the changing situation of the ‘coming future’, and the research is meaningful, especially in that the study aimed to find out the direction of traditional translation education and post-editing curriculum by utilizing the results of post-editing at the actual industrial site.